Labor & Employment Law

Richard Bales: Outstanding professor

It comes as no surprise that Professor Richard Bales is the 2010 Frank Sinton Milburn Outstanding Professor at the University of Northern Kentucky.

I know Rick as a blogger par excellence at Workplace Prof Blog.

This is how the University of Northern Kentucky sees him:

Professor Bales is a faculty member of Chase College of Law. He is a leading innovator in the classroom, an accomplished scholar and mentor of student scholars, and a university citizen who gives generously of his time to student work, university service and public engagement in meaningful ways.

A member of the Chase faculty since 1998, Professor Bales not only advises a student organization and coaches competition teams, but also directs the Chase Center for Excellence in Advocacy and serves as advisory board chairman for the interdisciplinary NKU Alternative Dispute Resolution Center.

The law faculty marvel at the scope and depth of Professor Bales? work across teaching, scholarship and service. Said one Chase colleague:

?. . . Professor Bales has routinely caused me to ponder how one human being can simultaneously be one of the most accomplished scholars, productive administrators and effective classroom teachers on the faculty. I still do not know how Professor Bales achieves at such high levels on many fronts; I only know that he does.?

In the classroom, Professor Bales combines traditional doctrinal instruction with experiential learning to ensure students are ?practice ready? when they graduate. For example, he divides students in Civil Procedure into three groups - a mediation group, an arbitration group and a litigation group - and leads them through a series of semester-long simulation exercises on a case such as sexual harassment.

In Labor Law, Professor Bales creates a company with students in the role of employees and himself in the role of president. He then puts myriad obstacles in their path - e.g., firing union leaders and pitting employees against each other on a pay raise plan ? and immerses them in the challenges of negotiating agreements in an atmosphere of multifaceted interests.

Full post as published by Ross' Employment Law Blog on May 10, 2010 (boomark / email).